One of Swords’ Dan Amrich interviews Nihilistic on the current state of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified

Dan Amrich is the author of “Critical Path: How to Review Video Games for a Living“, veteran gaming journalist for GamePro, current Activision Social Media Manager, and tarot-reading writer of the information nexus “One of Swords.” So what happens when this man of critical path sets his sights on Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified for Vita?

A much needed interview with the CEO of Nihilistic, Robert Huebner, is the end result of that question and a result that anyone with a Vita should be thankful for. In the interview, One of Swords asked some important questions that many Call of Duty fans would be most likely to ask about the upcoming Vita first-person shooter. Such as: How’s it looking since Gamescom? What’s the rear touchpad being used for? And where does the story in Declassified stand in the Black Ops story arc?

They speak more on a new mode coming to the Vita exclusive version called Hostile mode. In Hostile mode, the player is pitted against waves of enemies in a single player experience. Between waves, supply drops will provide additional ammo or even new weapons to combat the barrage of enemies. It’s essentially a survival mode, but this type of gameplay is perfectly suited for the portable powerhouse. Unit 13 pretty much proved this with its asynchronous multiplayer time trials mechanic.

One surprising detail Amrich takes the time to mention toward the end of his post is a bonus game potentially being included in retail copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. North American copies will have a voucher code for the PSP title Call of Duty: Roads to Victory. There is also a NA and EU Vita hardware bundle that comes with a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified and a 4GB memory card.

While I may have paraphrased the original line of questioning quite a bit, it’s just nice to see that Amrich is leveraging his role at Activision. Vita early adopters deserve a bit more information on quite possibly the most anticipated, yet under-marketed, game to have ever launched for the handheld. We do look forward to more information to come from developer Nihilistic or Activision in the weeks remaining before Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified is finally released on 13 November.